By PETE IORIZZO Staff writer
Saturday, October 29, 2011



At the behest of his wife, 30-year-old Brian Proper pulled a dozen boxes from under the bed in his Rensselaer apartment, logged on to his computer and prepared to part with a slice of his childhood.

On Craigslist.com, he posted the following ad: 30,000-40,000 sports cards -- $50.

"BASKETBALL, FOOTBALL, BASEBALL, 80S, 90S, 2000S, ALL IN GOOD CONDITION," his ad said.

The first call came from a man who wanted to sort through the cards before deciding whether to buy.

The second call came from a man offering $25.

The third call came from me.


The cards Proper is selling for approximately one-fifth of a penny each share something in common with the vacant townhomes in Florida and Arizona, or the dotcom stocks selling for a nickel: They're all victims of simple economics, bubbles burst.

Once mere gimmicks to sell cigarettes, baseball cards became a craze by the 1950s and 1960s. Young boys stuck cards in their bicycle spokes. Once those boys were old enough to drive cars, mothers discarded their collections the way a batter tosses aside a broken bat.

Years later, the Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron and Joe DiMaggio cards that survived clutter-conscience parents had become much more than a bicycle decoration -- they were a valuable commodity.

And so through the 1980s, sports cards were snatched up the way dotcom stocks and pricey condos would be a decade later. Kids collected, sorted and traded their cards. Parents obliged, figuring cards were a better investment than the newest Atari game.

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